QUETTA: Officials of the customs anti-smuggling wing raided a train at the Quetta railway station and seized a large quantity of smuggled foreign goods worth Rs250 million.

The train had come from the border town of Chaman. Quetta Customs Collector Ashraf Ali said at a press conference here on Monday that the seized goods included cigarettes, mobile phone sets, auto parts, air conditioners, LCDs, crockery, heaters, blankets and many other items.

He said the raid was conducted after receiving information that smugglers were using Quetta-Chaman passenger trains for their illegal business.

The customs team which conducted the raid included Additional Collector Zubair Shah and Deputy Collector Preventive Maqsood Baloch. Personnel of police and Frontier Corps also took part in the search operation that continued for about six hours. However, no one was arrested.

The collector said such an action had been made possible due to strengthening of the customs anti-smuggling wing.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2018